All language subtitles for How The Universe Works S04E06 Forces Of Mass Construction_ENG_Subtitles01

*

The blueprint of the universe
is drawn with magnetic lines.

Magnetic fields help stars ignite.

They shape entire galaxies.

And the same force
that creates magnetism

is the cement that holds
all matter together.

Without this universal glue,
there would be no stars, no planets,

no people and no light.

December 27th, 2004.

While America slept,

an immense shock wave
rippled through space.

The invisible wave had been
travelling at the speed of light

for 50,000 years.

It shook the Earth's
protective magnetic field...

..ripped out a chunk
of our upper atmosphere

and blinded several satellites.

It was one of the most
tremendous events

ever seen in modern astrophysics.

The blast of energy was huge,

but the Earth's
protective magnetic field

did just enough
to prevent serious damage.

Even so, scientists were rattled.

They searched for the culprit.

Was it a giant supernova?

The jet from a massive black hole?

But the usual suspects
weren't to blame.

This was something new.

The source was found
on the other side of the galaxy -

a tiny star with a magnetic field
stronger than anything

scientists had ever seen before.

From 50,000 light years away,

this little object,
just a few miles across,

has such a hissy-fit that
it physically affected the Earth.

Fortunately, this magnetic
death-star was far away.

Even so, science had woken up
to the terrifying power of magnetism.

Magnets appear to be simple -

they either stick together
or push apart.

You're probably familiar with
playing around with magnets.

You get 'em close together
and it's almost like they reach out

and grab each other,
pull each other together.

But if you flip them around,
they repel.

A magnet can attract and repel.

This remarkable feat
relies on the two magnets

swapping packets of energy that
physicists refer to as particles.

It turns out that what's going on
is that there are particles

that are being exchanged between
this magnet and this magnet,

and those particles
are called photons.

These are the same photons
that create light.

Photons are the packets
of energy that our eyes detect

to see the world around us.

Plunging down to the subatomic level

reveals how photons are
at the very heart of magnetism.

This bizarre world is ruled by
the laws of quantum mechanics

and inhabited
by tiny objects such as atoms,

each a nucleus surrounded
by a cloud of electrons.

Think about the structure
of an atom.

There's a positive charge
to the nucleus

and then the electrons
have a negative charge.

These two attract each other.

To explain this force,

quantum physicists think that
both the nucleus and electrons

spit out short-lived
bursts of photons.

The oppositely-charged particles
absorb each other's light

and this draws them together.

The force is known
as electromagnetism.

Atoms themselves
would not hold together

if it weren't
for electromagnetic forces.

Electromagnetism
also sticks atoms together

to form molecules.

And it sticks the molecules together
to make us and everything around us.

Electromagnetism is responsible for
the very structure of our matter -

atoms holding together.

Molecular bonds in our bodies,
those are bound together

by electromagnetic interactions

and therefore they're
bound together by light.

A universe without electromagnetism
would come apart at the seams.

If electromagnetism was turned off,
matter would dissolve.

Everything would just...
bleurgh...fall apart.

I could probably, with my superhuman
strength, hold myself together,

but the rest of you are doomed.

Without electromagnetism,
nothing would be solid.

When you touch something,

that's the electromagnetic
force as well.

We have electrons in our atoms
and they repel each other,

and when you try to touch something,

those forces keep you from
actually physically touching it.

(BEEPING)

The reason I don't fall
through the floor

is not that the floor
is particularly solid,

most of the floor is empty space.

It's the electric forces
of the atoms in the floor

against the electric forces
of the atoms in my body

that hold me up.

Just those little forces
of those few atoms

are enough to hold me up

against the entire
gravitational force of the Earth.

Electromagnetism rules.

The electromagnetic force
is far stronger than gravity.

And now scientists are now
beginning to understand its power

on a cosmic scale.

Turn back the clock

to when the universe was
just 380,000 years old.

There were no stars or planets,

just a broiling dense soup
of excited protons and electrons,

hurtling through a sea
of high-energy photons.

In the early universe,
there were no atoms,

because the energy was so intense

that separate charged
particles existed in a very
hot, dense primordial soup.

Then, as the universe cooled,
everything changed.

Between the time the universe
was about a minute old

and the time when the universe
was 300,000 years old,

electromagnetism
slowly came to the fore.

And protons and electrons
began to feel electric forces

and combine as atoms.

Electromagnetism essentially began
to determine the dynamics of matter

and the ultimate formation
of everything we see.

Now electromagnetism
could flex its muscles.

It pulled electrons and protons
together to form hydrogen,

the first atom.

The hydrogen atoms bunched together
to form clouds of hot gas.

These newly formed clouds glowed...

..and the lights of
the universe were turned on.

As the newly formed atoms
swirled around each other,

their combined magnetic effect
grew stronger.

The smallest magnets in the universe
are atoms themselves

that create, basically,
mini bar magnets

that are on the scale
of the subatomic world.

The hydrogen
micro-magnets began to align,

generating vast highways
of strong magnetic fields.

And then over time what happens is

that these magnetic fields
begin to grow.

And so all the magnetic fields
we see today in our universe

can really be attributed
to these primordial magnetic fields.

Electromagnetism
shaped the early universe,

but it didn't stop there.

It went on to help
with the next milestone

in the universe's evolution -
the stars.

The old picture
of how stars are formed

is all you need is gravity and time.

But we've come to understand

that the problem's
a little trickier than that.

That, actually, magnetic fields
play a fundamental role.

So it's possible that without
these magnetic fields,

stars themselves would not exist.

A billion years after the Big Bang,

magnetism injects life
into the universe's first ever stars.

*

*

Astronomers once believed
that star formation was simple...

..a vast cloud of interstellar gas
drawn together by its own gravity.

Temperatures and pressures rise
as the gas compresses...

..until it's hot enough
and dense enough

for nuclear fusion
to ignite the core.

And a star is born.

At least, that's what
the scientists used to think,

but recently, they discovered
a problem with this simple theory.

The primary mover when
you're forming a star is gravity.

The material condenses
in the centre to form a star.

And as that star forms, there's
material swirling around it,

attracted to that
central mass by its gravity.

But there's a problem -

this stuff has what's
called angular momentum.

Angular momentum stops
the Moon from falling into the Earth.

Scientists realised
that this same force

would stop the gas from
falling into the forming star.

So the star would never reach
critical mass and never ignite.

Angular momentum and gravity
are basically in a fight.

The angular momentum is what keeps
things spinning around out here,

whereas gravity wants to
tug it in towards the middle.

If somehow we could lose
that angular momentum,

then star formation would progress.

Before a star can be born,
it needs to draw in enough gas

to boost the temperature in its core
to 15 million degrees Celsius.

Scientists realise
that for that to happen,

something would have
to break the deadlock

between gravity and angular momentum.

That's where magnetism
can play a role.

The magnetism of the protostar,
the forming star,

can actually affect the disc
and slow it down

and actually let it drop in
and help the star itself form.

When charged particles move,
they produce magnetic fields.

In this case, the swirling gas
and the spinning star

generate magnetic fields
that are powerful enough

to slow the gas cloud down.

Magnetism works like a cosmic brake.

It slows down a little bit and
eventually spirals into the centre,

gravity starts to win.

Gravity beats out
that angular momentum

and star formation happens.

Finally slowed by the magnetic field,
gravity drags the gas ever closer,

crushing it and heating it until...

..ignition.

A star is born.

12 billion years ago,
the first stars burst into life.

Without magnetism,
we'd still be in the dark.

But magnetism can also bring
terrible destruction...

..and some of these early stars

are destined to transform
into magnetic monsters.

The transformation begins
when the star runs out of fuel.

A sudden and violent reaction
takes place.

It implodes.

This is known as a supernova.

The star's outer layers
are blown out into space.

What's left behind,
including the magnetic field,

is crushed by gravity.

If you look at stars,

just about all stars have strong
magnetic fields at their surface.

What happens is that if
a star dies and it collapses,

the same amount of magnetic field
must still be present.

So if the surface area of the star

is decreased by a factor
of 1,000 or 10,000,

then that means that
the magnetic field intensity
must increase by that same amount.

What's left is an ultra-dense,
ultra-magnetic ball,

roughly the size of a city.

These objects are more than
a trillion times denser than lead

and they have
the potential to harbour

the most extreme
magnetic fields ever seen.

They are called magnetars.

These dense balls have very,
very strong magnetic fields.

In fact, the strongest magnetic
fields in the universe.

The magnetic field can be more
than a trillion times stronger

than the Earth's field.

If you got very, very close
to a magnetar,

that strong magnetic field
might possibly rip you apart.

Because your atoms
just can't stay together

in the vicinity
of such a strong magnetic field.

Scientists know
of 23 magnetars in the Milky Way,

but they think
there could be many more.

One, SGR-1806-20,

located 50,000 light years away,
on the other side of the galaxy,

was the same magnetic monster
that unleashed an assault
on the Earth in 2004.

The electromagnetic shock wave
was triggered by a starquake.

That's like an earthquake,
but it's on star.

And the crust of the star
slipped about this much,

literally about a centimetre,
the width of your finger.

But this was far larger
than any earthquake

this planet has ever seen,
millions of times stronger.

And the magnetic field
is coupled with the matter in it.

So when the crust slipped,
so did the magnetic field.

And it launched
a blast of energy so powerful

that 50,000 light years away,
it physically affected our planet.

This tiny slip had a colossal effect.

If this thing had been a lot closer,

the effect on us
would have been huge.

If a magnetar erupted
a couple of light years from Earth,

it could devastate our planet.

There could be a burst of radiation

that could literally
strip away our atmosphere.

A blast from a magnetar
could blow our atmosphere into space,

leaving the planet's
animals gasping for air.

In this near-vacuum,
our oceans would quickly boil away

and Earth would become a lifeless
ball of rock spinning through space.

In the cosmic menagerie
of beasts and ghouls

and things that go
bump in the night,

I think magnetars are at the
very top of the list of things
that really are pretty scary.

Magnetars have alerted scientists

to the incredible power
of electromagnetism.

And yet, for many years,

scientists believed
it was a minor player

in the evolution of our galaxy.

But new data has revealed
a magnetic field on a cosmic scale.

For centuries, mankind
has been studying the night sky...

..mapping out
the gas, dust and stars.

But we've missed a structure
as big as the galaxy itself...

..a vast magnetic field

that measures more than
a quintillion kilometres across.

A single atom
can have a magnetic field.

A bar magnet
can have a magnetic field.

Our planet does, the sun does.

And, in fact, structures
even as large as galaxies can.

A galactic magnetic field is huge.

It's basically the size
of the entire Milky Way.

The field is far stronger
than anyone had realised.

If you add up
the magnetic fields from the stars

and the gas that fill our galaxy...

..it still can't account
for all the magnetism we see.

Something else is powering it...

..but what?

Where do all of these
big magnetic fields come from?

Where are the magnetic fields
coming from

that are pervading the galaxy?

Scientists got
the first clue to the origin

of these mysterious magnetic fields

by looking at the remains
of dead stars.

Records suggest that Cassiopeia A
suffered a cataclysmic

supernova explosion
around 300 years ago.

What remains is
a vast ball of gas and dust,

hurled out into space
by the exploding star.

As the gas expands outwards
in the shape of a giant bubble,

it crashes into neighbouring clouds
of interstellar gas.

Astronomers have discovered

that these collisions
generate strong magnetic fields.

And the extra magnetism contributes

to the larger
galactic magnetic field.

The question is - by how much?

A new breed
of experimental cosmologists

are determined to find out.

Jena Meinecke is using one
of the world's most powerful lasers

to simulate supernova
shock waves in the lab.

What I can do is use large lasers,

in fact,
the largest lasers on Earth,

to create supernovas which can
fit in the palm of your hands.

Jena starts the experiment

by placing a small piece of carbon
rod into the laser target area.

We put all six laser beams
onto this carbon-rod target

in a gas-filled chamber.

And so what happens is
is that this material

will expand out ballistically,
creating a shock wave.

And what we hope is
that this shock wave

will generate magnetic fields.

All right, locking down for a shot.

(ALARM WAILING)

Everyone evacuate.

(BEEPS)

Hi, Laser Bay,
this is Target Area West,

we're locked down
and ready for a shot.

Full energy on all six beams.

The laser operations team
focusses on the tiny carbon target.

The laser heats the target
to over a million degrees.

The carbon explodes,

creating a shock wave that
slams into the surrounding gas.

Success. We've got our shot.

So it looks like our laser
hit the target quite well.

We have this beautiful shock wave
here that's been emitted.

So the laser came in this way,
hit our carbon rod.

This is all the sort of debris
that was moving out quite fast,

and then this is the shock wave
which generated as a result.

Instruments detected
strong magnetic fields

along the line of the shock wave
as it struck the gas around it.

So this shock wave
is moving out into space

and this is what's creating
all of these magnetic fields

along this front.

Jena thinks a similar process

creates vast
magnetic fields in space.

Supernova shock waves slam
into gigantic interstellar gas clouds

like a tsunami,

raising a fast-moving
front of turbulent gas.

Charged particles
inside the gas cloud

tumble over and over each other...

..generating powerful magnetic fields
that extend far out into space.

So what you have
is a mixing of charged particles

that are now spinning around
and moving fast in chaotic ways.

Whenever you have
that kind of activity,

you have magnetic fields.

It seems that powerful
magnetic fields break out

whenever clouds
of interstellar gas collide.

This phenomenon is not just
limited to supernova explosions,

because they aren't
the only cosmic phenomena

with the power to shock.

Overfed black holes blast jets
of super-heated matter into space.

These jets pierce through gas clouds,

producing turbulence
and powerful magnetic fields.

And sometimes, drifting clouds
of interstellar gas

smash into each other,

creating huge magnetic storms.

Collisions like these
are the steroids

that boost the Milky Way's
magnetic muscle.

And the distribution of this magnetic
bulk may be the key to unlocking

one of the greatest
mysteries in cosmology...

..why our galaxy is missing
over a trillion stars.

*

*

The Milky Way is made up
of more than 200 billion stars.

And yet, for astronomers, even this
astronomical figure isn't enough.

That's because surrounding
our galaxy is a vast halo of gas,

the perfect star fuel.

According to calculations,

it should have turned into
thousands of billions of new stars,

but it hasn't.

One of things that's
hard to understand

about the Milky Way is why
there are actually so few stars.

Our Milky Way should have
ten times as many stars as it does,

but it doesn't.

One of the big questions is why?

According to the rules
of old-fashioned physics,

the colossal clouds
surrounding the Milky Way

should have been sucked inside
the galaxy's boundaries.

Here, the gas would have
condensed under its own gravity

and formed into new stars.

But cosmologists
now think that magnetic fields

are holding the gas back.

There's a huge amount of gas
that comes way from outside

the galaxy that wants to fall in
and then be available

for star formation.

What prevents all of that gas
and dust that we know is out there

from turning into stars?

It might just be magnetic fields.

Magnetism now plays
a key role in our understanding

of how galaxies form.

Ten billion years ago,
the fledgling Milky Way

was nothing more
than a vast ball of stars.

But over time,
spin flattened the ball into a disc.

The disc grew as gravity
sucked in more and more stars.

Gravity is ultimately
first responsible

for the collapse of matter
which form galaxies.

Once matter begins
to move and interact...

..magnetic fields become important.

Early supernova shock waves
created turbulence,

spreading magnetic fields
through the infant Milky Way disc.

As the disc spun,
these magnetic lines

wove a protective cloak
around the young galaxy.

Here's the problem - in our galaxy,
it's such a tangled web

of magnetic field lines.

And this magnetism can
prevent stuff from falling in

on the centre of the galaxy.

This powerful magnetic web
stopped the vast reserves of gas

from falling into the Milky Way.

Magnetic fields played
a fundamental role

in keeping that gas out.

This puts the brakes
on star formation

and keeps new stars from forming

as fast as we think they
would in the Milky Way.

The galactic magnetic fields not only
reduce the rate of star formation,

new evidence suggests
they also determine the regions

where the stars
that do form are born.

Making it more likely for stars
to form along the web

of magnetic field lines
that weave through the galaxy.

Thus shaping
the distribution of stars,

including our own star - the sun.

Clues for this magnetic blueprint
came from a galaxy

2.7 million light years away.

The Triangulum Galaxy
boasts spectacular spiral arms.

Stars are bursting into life,
all neatly lined up along them.

Astronomers realised
that the spiral arms

traced out
the galaxy's magnetic fields.

What we're beginning to see
right now is that it looks like

we're discovering these gas clouds
where stars are forming,

that are aligned.

And one way that this
alignment could occur

is via the act of magnetic fields.

Magnetic fields lines act
sort of like super-highways
for charged particles.

Charged particles
wanna track along them.

Charged particles
in gas clouds within the galaxy

are directed along the spiral arms
by magnetic fields.

Here, the gas clouds are denser,

allowing star formation
to take place.

Gravity is responsible
for the formation of galaxies,

but magnetism may make
galaxies what they are.

Magnetism has shaped the galaxy.

But it's also responsible
for protecting us

from our nearest
and most dangerous threat...

..the sun.

The sun's scale and power
is almost unimaginable.

It burns a staggering

five million tonnes
of nuclear fuel every second.

The energy it releases
powers most life on Earth.

But without magnetism to tame it,
our star would destroy us.

The spinning molten core of Earth
generates a magnetic field

that bursts from the poles,

cocooning our entire planet
in a blanket of magnetism.

This invisible force-field
deflects deadly charged particles

streaming from the sun,

protecting us and our atmosphere
from catastrophic damage.

But this vital shield
might be losing its power.

In the last, about, 200 years,
it's weakened by about 10%.

And if it continues at this rate,
in a couple of thousand years,

it might go down to nothing.

If it were to disappear forever,

we would be in trouble
in the long run.

Our planet without
magnetic protection would be doomed.

We only have to look at our planetary
neighbour to see what would happen.

Mars may have once been like Earth,

with a thick atmosphere
and water on its surface.

That's gone. Why?

Well, we know Mars doesn't have
a very strong magnetic field,

and that means it can't protect
itself from the solar wind.

These particles come
streaming out of the sun

and they hit Mars's atmosphere
and blow it away.

Its atmosphere was actually
stripped off by the solar wind,

because it didn't have a protective
cocoon of a magnetic field.

Today, if you look at Mars,
it's cold, it's barren,

it's lifeless, because
it doesn't have an atmosphere.

Understanding
the Earth's magnetic field

is key to understanding
our future survival on this planet.

Geophysicist Dan Lathrop and his team

have built a replica of the Earth's
core to play out the evolution

of magnetic fields in fast-forward.

Lathrop wants to know
if the Earth's magnetic decline

is part of a normal cycle
of peaks and troughs,

or if it signals the beginning
of a terminal decline.

Having an experiment like this

allows you to get
closer to something

like a planetary core than could
ever be done by any other means.

Liquid iron is too hot to handle,

so Lathrop fills his ten-foot ball
with the next best thing -

12-and-a-half tonnes
of liquid sodium metal.

When we run the experiment,
the main thing that we're
trying to understand is

how this swirling mass of
liquid sodium, this turbulent,
roiling flow of liquid metal

generates electric currents
and magnetic fields.

And try to use that then
to understand how planets' interiors

do the same thing.

Lathrop starts the motor,

spinning the ball,
replicating how our planet rotates.

Inside the spinning ball,
the molten sodium starts to swirl.

Charged particles
race around the core.

OK, yeah, that's good.
It's coming into view.

A magnetic field emerges
from the poles of the ball.

It looks just like the one
that protects the Earth.

Spontaneously,
the magnetic field starts to weaken,

but then recovers again.

Lathrop believes the Earth's
magnetic field will also recover.

And his experiment
shows something else -

the magnetic poles are moving.

Amazingly, scientists have found
that the Earth's poles do the same.

As we look at the Earth's
magnetic field,

we can see that the direction
the compasses are pointing toward

is migrating to the north at a rate
of several tens of miles per year.

It's migrated off of Canada,
it's moving now towards Siberia.

Will it keep going to Siberia
and beyond that?

Or will it come back again
and reach toward Canada?

It's hard to predict
what will happen.

To try and predict the future,

scientists search for clues
in our planet's magnetic past.

Planetary scientist
Jani Radebaugh is in Hawaii,

home to Kilauea,
the world's most active volcano,

making it the perfect natural lab
to study Earth's magnetic history.

The great thing about
lava flows is that they trap

the Earth's magnetic field
inside of them

and then freeze it in place.

So now if we go
and pick up the rocks

from these lava flows,
we can actually find out

the orientation of
the magnetic field in the past.

Lava contains particles of iron.

When molten, these iron particles

line up
with the Earth's magnetic field.

Then, as the lava cools,
this orientation is locked in place.

By digging down through
layers of historic lava flows,

scientists have discovered
a magnetic record

that stretches back
for millions of years.

It shows the Earth's field
doesn't just weaken and move.

From time to time,
the whole field flips.

The North and South Poles
actually swap places.

The field was aligned
in one direction for a while.

And if you come up a little ways
higher in that column of lava rock,

we find it was actually oriented
completely the opposite direction,

180 degrees from where it is today.

It does that a number of times,
dozens of times.

So that tells us that
the magnetic field of the Earth

changes direction,
not on kind of a regular basis,

but once in a while, spaced by
tens of thousands of years,

maybe up to
a couple of million years apart.

And it flips from north to south,

changing directions
over the course of Earth's history.

How will the next magnetic
somersault affect life on Earth?

The surprising answer - very little.

Biologists have dug deep
into the Earth's fossil record

and discovered that
magnetic flips aren't cataclysmic.

What we do know is that
it doesn't take so long

that we're left unprotected
for a long enough time

that life is wiped out.

We don't see mass-extinction events

around every uh...
magnetic-field-flipping event,

and therefore, we know
it must be relatively fast.

The Earth's magnetic shield

has protected life from the sun's
radiation for billions of years...

..and it will continue to do so.

But we are different
from our ancient ancestors.

We harness the force
of electromagnetism

in every device
that powers our technology.

And this puts us at risk

from a threat that could bring
the human race to its knees.

*

*

The human race could be heading
towards a major catastrophe

of our own making.

We've built our entire civilisation
on electromagnetic foundations,

and there's a threat in the sky

that could bring it
all down at any moment.

We depend on the sun for our life
and for our civilisation,

but it can just as
easily take that away.

We have wires running everywhere

and they're used
to carrying currents.

But this infrastructure
is in some level vulnerable

to activity on the sun.

Day after day, we're protected
from the sun's solar wind

by our planet's magnetic field.

But the sun has
a magnetic field, too,

and sometimes its magnetic lines
become weapons of mass destruction.

These magnetic weapons
are generated deep inside the star.

The sun is hot on the inside
and that hot material rises up

from the centre and goes out
toward the surface and back down.

This process is called convection.

And so these charged particles
are moving around

and generating a magnetic field.

Now, unlike the Earth,
which has one big magnetic field
like a bar magnet,

inside the sun there are
zillions of little magnetic fields

all rolling around
and doing their own thing.

A surprising feature
of the sun's surface

further distorts this chaotic web
of magnetic fields.

The whole sun spins
but it's not a solid object.

The equator actually spins
faster than the poles

and the sun twists itself up.

When you twist magnetic fields,
they get more energised.

Magnetic fields can store
a vast amount of energy

and the sun has that to spare.

Now, if that were it,
it wouldn't be a problem.

But what happens is sometimes
these magnetic lines can snap.

When a magnetic field snaps,
the surface of the sun erupts,

blasting out a magnetically-charged
cannonball of particles.

This is called
a coronal mass ejection or a CME.

A coronal mass ejection
blasts out this energy,

there's a huge amount
of subatomic particles.

Something like a billion tonnes,
which will erupt out from the sun

and head out
into interplanetary space.

This cloud of particles has its own
magnetic field that goes with it.

And if that hits the Earth,

it can interact
with our magnetic field.

When a CME smashes
into Earth's magnetic field,

the impact can induce a surge
of current in the power lines

that deliver electricity
to homes and businesses.

All of our electromagnetic
infrastructure,

all the power lines,
the transistors, everything,

all of that can absorb this current
and it can overload the circuit.

Causing blackouts
and a lot of annoyance to society.

Around 150 CMEs hit Earth each year.

Some cause blackouts
but nothing worse.

However, the sun has the potential
to fire a doomsday CME our way.

First, the huge ball
of charged particles

would smash into satellites
orbiting the Earth.

(SATELLITE MALFUNCTIONING)

A big solar storm
could actually affect satellites,

shorting them out.

We could lose communication,
we could lose GPS.

GPS is used by every
stock market across the globe.

Without satellites, the world's
financial infrastructure could crash.

Aeroplanes would be grounded.

Shipping lanes closed.

Mobile communications would go dead.

We depend on all of this

for our monetary system,
financial system,

for our civilisation.

After destroying satellites,

the energy of the CME
would reach the surface.

Immense electrical currents
would surge through power lines,

overloading entire grids
across the planet.

Substations explode
in a shower of sparks.

You can imagine
an extreme solar event,

an explosion like
we've never seen before

causing tremendous power outages.

You could even imagine
all of the United States

having a massive blackout.

It would take years
and billions of dollars

to fix the electrical infrastructure

and build and launch new satellites.

A huge storm could actually
bring our civilisation to its knees.

Magnetism threatens
to destroy our society...

..but our electromagnetic habit
is a hard one to give up.

This same force protects us,

allowing life
to flourish on our planet.

It helped build our sun

and even the galaxy we sit in.

Without magnetism,
there would be nothing.

Magnetism affects processes that
range from the formation of galaxies

to the formation of stars,

to the processes
that power our very being.

Magnetism is central
to our existence in the universe.

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From the atom up,

magnetism shapes
every object in the cosmos.

It really is the ultimate force
of mass construction.

It's responsible for
the very nature of matter itself.

It's responsible for
the Earth holding onto
its atmosphere and its water.

Every day of your life

you have to remember
you're here because of magnetism.